An almighty adventure, the Mongol Rally is a dash across a quarter of
the earth's surface in cars that most people consider underpowered for
doing the shopping. Thousands of miles of adventure lie ahead on some
‘lesser travelled’ routes, amidst some of the world's most stunning
scenery. There’s also stray camels, wolves, Asia’s only native species
of bear, bubonic plauge, Russian police, temperatures of over 40C in
Iran and snap blizzards on the Mongolian steppes to worry about.
But we won’t - we’ll let our girlfriends do that...


Over July/August 2010, teamFUDGE will be attempting to drive from
Scotland to Mongolia in what will, frankly, be a shitty little second-
hand car. Mad? Yes. So eveyone keeps telling us.
But at least we're not the only ones. It’s a rally afterall. And if we die
along the way then at least it'll be for some hella good causes.

That's right, it's all for charity! The basic premise is that we have to get
ourselves a wee car that's no more than ten years old with an engine
that's absolutely no bigger than 1.2l. We're talking bottom of the range
Ford Fiestas, Vauxhall Corsas, Nissan Micras or Ford Ka's. We then
spend four weeks hunched up in this car driving for ten to twelve hours
a day until we reach our destination, break down, get arrested, or die
trying.

The team willl be leaving Aberdeen at the end of July 2010 and hope
(hope: pah!) to reach the capital of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar, some four
weeks later having driven across Europe, through Turkey, and onward
to Iran and various places ending with '-stan' that used to belong to the
Rushkies. Once we hit the road there'll be no support from anyone at
all other than fellow ralliers and whichever locals we might be lucky
enough to communicate with using more than rudimentary hand
gestures.

Please note that not all the money donated will be going directly to the
charities - driving from the UK to Mongolia obviously comes at a
price and we are but a poor student and a poor gig promotor. Some
proportion of the money raised will go towards our costs, but at least
£1,000 cash will go directly to charity (even if nobody bothers
donating), and when we get to Mongolia we will be donating our
mighty rally car to the charities, either to be sold or used for charity
purposes. Rally rules dictate that the cars will cost around £1,000 so
that's another large chunk going to good causes.

All the money left in the pot once we've got home will also be going to
UK charities of our chosing. In case you think all that might a bit off,
sleep well in the knowledge that charities like Oxfam spend up to 70%
of the total money they raise on advertising and covering expences, so
we're not the only ones!

So. In summary then. This will not be a holiday for the members of
teamFUDGE. Sleeping will be done either in the car or a tent, and it'll
be cheap local food, roadkill and maybe a McDonalds here and there
along the way. Although... Do they have McDonalds in Iran...?


THE CHARITIES:


CYPPD - Children and Young People's Protection and Development
www.childrensprotectionmongolia.org
Mercy Corps
www.mercycorps.org.uk/mongolrally
CNCF - Christina Noble Children's Foundation
www.cncf.org
Cancer Research UK
www.cancerresearchuk.org


TO DONATE:


The preferred donation method is through Paypal. To do this, log into
your normal Paypal account and hit the 'Send Money' tab along the top.
Enter 'teamfudge@hotmail.com' in the 'To' box. Enter the figure you
would like to donate in the next box (in British Pounds please!).
Next select the 'Personal' tab just below and mark it as a gift. On the
next screen there is space to add a message, you don't have to write
anything but if you put in some nice words then they'll get posted on
our pages so everyone knows you've offered your support to this hair
brained scheme.

If you don't have a Paypal account it's very easy to sign up or we can
send you a Money Request which you can pay for with your debit or
credit card. Anyone who would prefer a Money Request then please
get in touch and we'll get it sorted.

Anyone who is using a debit or credit card to send us their donation is
respectfully asked to add an extra 50p per £10.00 you send to cover the
fees. If you transfer money straight from your registered bank account,
however, there are no charges.

If you're slightly more old fashioned, our bank details can be made
available on request which would allow you to go to your local bank
and put money directly into our account. You can also send us a cheque
if you wish - please contact us if you'd like to donate using either of
these methods.

Or, of course, they’ll be collecting buckets scattered around our
respective places of work. And we’re not adverse to you shoving
tenners into our hands as we walk down the street either...

Between now and July there will also be many fund raising schemes.
We'll be putting on gigs in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, releasing charity
albums, running raffles, selling our soul to the Devil, that kinda thing.

In addition, we'll be looking for some big money 'title' sponsors from
businesses and local firms - if you fit that description then please get in
contact with a member of teamFUDGE. In exchange for large sums of
cash we'll splash your name across our car, put your logos on our
T-shirts, link you on our website, etc..

If there are any bands reading this that would be interested in playing a
charity gig or donating a track to one of the charity albums, again
please get in touch. And if anyone thinks they could knock up a good
website for us, don’t be shy. Our contact information is listed below:

teamfudge@hotmail.com - for general enquiries.
07939476702 - Driver Pete, for info about donations.
myspace/fudgefanzine - Navigator Bri, for gig/CD related queries.
Dedicated Website - coming soon?
mongolrally.com - Official Rally Website.
... and, finally, we have a Facebook group too. Somewhere.